Saying Goodbye to My Lovely Old Victorian Townhouse

I'm saying goodbye to the lovely old late Victorian bayfront brown brick townhouse I've lived in the past 30 years.  I've moved to something smaller as we just can't do stairs and keep up a garden anymore due to the infirmities creeping in as we age.  So it's basically on the market now with a very friendly realtor, Jake Anderson.
We have had so much family life and good times in this house with my son and his friends and all our friends and family that visited us in the nation's capital city that I feel an era has passed. This was the house my son grew up in as he was 2 years old when we moved in and is now in his thirties.  Over the years we made many improvements, kept it clean and fixed up and all the time just loved the neighborhood, Bloomingdale, and our neighbors.  I'm already missing walks to Crispus Attucks Park and the quick access to Washington Hospital Medical Center clinics!

Had many parties in the dining room

It's a big house with a lot of functional living space like a covered front porch, eat-in kitchen and formal dining room, a back deck and a good deep lot where one can grow veggies in the back yard (or keep a goat, or so they say!). I especially cherished my eat-in kitchen as I finally got it to be totally modern with stainless steel appliances, a quartz counter top and a perfect shade of grey paint on the cabinets!
I hope the new owners will find out how grand it is to live with interesting features that you can't find in new houses such as original oak and pine hardwood floors, chestnut wood door frames and a stamped tin ceiling.

Living room woodwork is awesome!

I will surely miss the mirrored corner cabinetry, a cast iron and brass fireplace and high ceilings. The new owners will surely enjoy a few surprises in the spring when the bulbs (irises, lilies and daffodils) pop up and when the Queen Liz rosebush starts showing off in June, not to mention the glorious blue hydrangea blooms in late summer or the bright pink crepe myrtle that flowers through October.

A very airy modern eat-in kitchen

A super spacious master bedroom

Bloomingdale's Big Dig

I haven't photographed all the sites associated with the Big Dig to manage water in Bloomingdale but I was captivated recently by the huge pipes I saw being laid under the road at 2nd and W streets. I couldn't help but think they are so big you could sleep in them quite comfortably!  Or play some kind of crazy hide and seek game!  And the machinery and men working on the job look so determined to solve the water woes we've had for a while. I know I've experienced some of the aggravation caused by the digging as the bus I take all the time -- the G2 -- has been rerouted or detoured for TWO YEARS, stopping no longer at the two bus stops I have used for over ten years. Instead, I now have to walk seven blocks almost to Anna Cooper Circle instead of the terminus stop in front of the Water Works on Bryant Street.  And, I hope, when the pipe digging job is done, the bus will return to its old route. But I suppose this type of thing is one of the prices we will have to pay for fixing the water run-off sewage problem that's captivated the neighborhood for the last two years. And I certainly don't want to experience the basement seepage problems I've had to fix and pay to repair to make my basement usable again.  Just writing about it makes me think of the smell of mold!  After two or was it three episodes of soaked carpeting, I just had the whole thing ripped out and put down tiles after having the concrete repaired.  Even though it was very good carpeting and made the space very warm and livable, I actually prefer the tiling now. And I've nothing against the rain as it really makes the flowers bloom in my garden. I just wonder when the rains will come again!NOTE: be sure to read the Anonymous commenter below who says this "dig" ISN'T the run-off sewer water fix, but a water main replacement instead. Hmm....

Free Art All Over Bloomingdale

sculpture garden on 1st NW

Mural on W St NW

You really can't wander around in our section of the city very long without seeing some of the free art just lying in wait for your enjoyment. I've captured some of it here -- there's the iron lady sculpture on First Street, and there's now often a seasonal outdoor installation at the intersection of T and RI Ave, and for those who like to take walks up the alleys there's a huge colorful mural on the side of a house on W street. There's others if you go look but these were just a few I saw on a recent walkabout.

Easter Art on RI Ave NW

Toilets in BloomingdaleDC Alleys

Alley behind First St NW

Alley behind First St NW

Every once in a while I take a walk through the alleys behind our houses in Bloomingdale just to see what there is to see, to avoid traffic and to get a different view of things. Yesterday's walk elicited two toilets.  One seems to be positioned in a back yard where I assume there are people working on the house and the plumbing isn't working  yet. Or maybe -- so my mind rambled -- it's like that situation in the book "The Help" where the householder didn't want to share her toilet with her domestic servants.  I was also fascinated by this standing plastic toilet being red and white and blue. Is there something all American about toilets that I don't know? The other toilet has less to say about itself as it has clearly been abandoned and knocked over, lying in the alley behind a house that may have been renovated recently but I couldn't discern that.  I've seen these thrones kept and used as planters for geraniums but this one's previous owner apparently is not into that type of recycling. You just never know what you are going to see in the alleys behind the houses.

October Roses in Bloomingdale

There were a few days recently in October when it was Indian summer and the weather was so nice I ended up walking about in the neighborhood a bit and of course, since I had my camera with me, snapping away at whatever caught my eye.  So of course when I saw these bright pink roses growing by the roadside I just had to kneel down and take the shot against the background of the historic houses nearby.

Interesting buildings in Bloomingdale neighborhood

on RI Ave NW

on First St at T & RI Ave NW

on  First St NW

There's lots of interesting looking buildings in our section of the city since all the houses are built of brick and most built in the late 19th and early 20th century. They've also variegated a bit with bright colored paint and add-ons and things. I took one photo while I was at Boundary Stone Public House on RI Ave and another while looking at Rustik Tavern at the corner of three streets since I'm so pleased we now have two decent bars in walking distance of my house. The overall effect of the old neighborhood transforming makes it a very pleasant place to live..

What's With the Shoes on Bloomingdale Sidewalk?

This is the second pair of shoes I've found just perched on the sidewalk on a street near where I live recently. It's always a pair of shoes, not just one. Very strange. Who leaves a pair of sneakers neatly parked like that? Maybe we just don't grow enough flowers and trees in Bloomingdale, maybe shoes grow like trees.

Blooming Bloomingdale

Pink blossoms on V St NW

Narcissus in Crispus Attucks Park

These houses look like cakes

There's so many lovely blossoms in our Bloomingdale neighborhood this spring that of course I've run around with a camera and taken some photos. The pink Eastern Rosebuds and the narcissus and whatever those white flowered trees are, it all just looks so delightful and a welcome change from the winter.

Rustik Tavern in Bloomingdale

Well, it's just amazing to me that there is now a decent bar where we can go for a drink and snack and that is within walking distance of my house in this section of the city I have lived in for over 25 years. This is the Rustik Tavern which opens at 4 pm every day and serves drinks and pizza and a few other things up to 1 pm daily. We went there Saturday evening about 5 pm and hubster ordered a Ying Ling beer and I had my customary vodka martini while sitting at the bar watching Manchester United beat Manchester City on the large HD TV screen hanging over the bar. The smiling waitress also served us a pizza -- I think we got some sort of veggie thing -- that was about 12 inches diameter and enough of a snack for two people. They make the pizzas in a fiery gas oven over on one side of the tavern that you can watch while they cut and chop and bake 'em.  While we were there nearly all the tables filled with mostly all the young people who have moved into the neighborhood over the past four to five years. They even bring their kids in with them as one little girl was running up and down between the tables and the row of bar stools.  It's a very nice atmosphere and we stayed for a couple of hours and even noshed on some baked potatoes with bacon and cheese bits and a poached pear dessert during our second round of drinkies.Of course, I had to check and see if there was a wheelchair accessible doorway that my son could use when he comes home and wants to go out for a beer or whatever. And yes, they have such a doorway but it's a bit blocked by surplus chairs on the inside. That's a No-No!  I got the impression that this bar attracts more singles later in the evening but I'm really not sure about that.  It's clear that when the weather gets warmer they will have tables outside and that might be a fun activity too, watching the world go by on Rhode Island avenue in Bloomingdale.   I might try the kale salad then, which I'd seen being delivered to another table. Well, we'd prayed for the neighborhood to improve, and now, prayer answered! Thank God!